Viewing 10 posts - 41 through 50 (of 50 total)
  • Play music on PC through the stereo – ways & means
  • scuzz
    Free Member

    It’s got a real banging donk on it.

    Amen.
    Glad you sorted it out 😀
    Someone mentioned Appletastic™ solutions for controlling Macbooks with iPads and the like – be aware that if you plug your laptop in, you’ll be able to control your music from a smartphone or cheap tablet. Although long USB cables are probably cheaper 😉

    zokes
    Free Member

    Now where to get a 15 metre USB cable, then I wouldn’t have to move stuff around…

    Maplin? or Scan.co.uk.

    shindiggy
    Free Member

    Fiio E10 Dac? Nice and cheap and sound very good.

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    mboy
    Free Member

    Grum, only on my phone so relatively short reply…

    Firstly, apologies, re-read what I wrote and can see how it reads a bit condescending. Didn’t mean it to sound like that as such.

    Secondly, pretty much wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve said aside from the 320KBPS MP3 vs WAV file in comparison. For whatever reason, I find it easy, as have my peers when we did it. Possibility that it was accentuated by the music we were listening to for the recording though being particularly bassy dance music, something more midrange orientated would be much less cut and dry probably.

    Thirdly, familiar with Nyqvist’s theorem, and why 44.1KHz is considered to be an optimum sample rate. But the arguments are there for the harmonic frequencies we can’t hear affecting the sounds we can hear in a recording. You might be right though, maybe I’m obsessing. I’d rather listen to my music collection as MP3’s for the rest of my life than I would listen to ANY Heavy Metal ever, even if it was recorded in DVD audio or even SACD format! A good piece of music is a good piece of music, but I’d rather we didn’t compromise on the quality in order to get there too.

    And finally (for now) I remember at 16 in a physics lesson we did the sine wave hearing test. I could still hear it at over 20KHz back then. I’m 32 now, did the same test last term with my peers, and I could only hear up to about 18.5KHz whereas the guys at 18 and 19 could still hear up to about 20KHz… This amused them all greatly, calling me an old bastard! As for my hearing, it’s not perfect, but then nobody’s is. I’ve taken precautions when DJing and in clubs for years as I know how important my hearing is, and how many top name DJ’s are almost deaf now! My hearing is not going to be as good as someone who’s spent most of their life in total silence, but (like you) I know what I’m listening out for. I’n not new to all this, only new to actually studying it in a structured way, I’ve been messing about with music and playing it, engineering it and making it for nigh on 15 years so far, and whilst it hasn’t yet been able to support me full time, I’ve certainly made a good few quid out of it so far… 🙂

    Trampus
    Free Member

    Now where to get a 15 metre USB cable, then I wouldn’t have to move stuff around…

    USB 2.0 provides for a maximum cable length of 5 meters for devices running at Hi Speed (480 Mbit/s). So be prepared for more expense as you pay for the necessary amplification , and the subsequent drop in sound quality! 🙂

    Mboy, top end hearing is not the be all and end all of sound. Most damage is done to your mid range hearing.

    Some of us have been earning a crust at this for over 45yrs, you know.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    Well thanks for this thread. When I bought a Vista box I couldn’t get a driver for my old external Soundblaster so I just plugged the jack from the amp into the headphone socket, with the results you’d expect. This thread inspired me to check for a Vista compatible driver and I found one. 8)

    catsplums
    Free Member

    I have an arcam rpac and am very impressed with the results, I am no expert but it was comparible to my marantz ki signature mk2 cd player (pretty reasonable device held in pretty good regard.) I did a few blind tests on family and a lot of considered listening to see if I had made the right choice or if I will use it as a stepping stone until I could afford a audiolab m-dac, for the price and the application I am using it for I am very happy.

    MadBillMcMad
    Full Member

    slightly off topic, but one of the first things I would do is get the music off your laptop & on to a raided hard drive.

    Sooner or later your laptop will either have a hard drive fail, go up in smoke or get nicked.

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    I’ve seen a “High speed USB2 15M active repeater extension cable” but with a warning that some isoch devices won’t work. Does that mean I’ll be losing sound quality?

    And because I’m old & dull I tend to back my stuff up. Music files etc synced between laptop, desktop, phone and external hard drive.

    joemarshall
    Free Member

    I’ve seen a “High speed USB2 15M active repeater extension cable” but with a warning that some isoch devices won’t work. Does that mean I’ll be losing sound quality?

    No, you won’t lose sound quality by using a usb extension, not in an audio sense as in the audio will sound worse. However with cheap USB extensions, it maybe just won’t work at all. You may get complete gaps in your audio or similar rubbish. Isochronous devices means audio and video devices, ie. exactly what you’re trying to plug into it, so it may well not work.

    Having said that you’re only bunging out one channel and don’t have anything else on the USB extension like a hub, so you might be lucky.

    Stupid question, but I think no one has asked it – I take it your amp doesn’t have optical or spdif inputs, as that’d be a much better way to deal with this situation than running big USB cables, and a USB soundcard supporting it would be dirt cheap.

    USB 2.0 provides for a maximum cable length of 5 meters for devices running at Hi Speed (480 Mbit/s). So be prepared for more expense as you pay for the necessary amplification , and the subsequent drop in sound quality!

    USB is a digital signal – if you use an extender that supports high speed devices, there will be no drop in sound quality, as the digital to audio conversion happens after the USB lead. If you use an extender that doesn’t fully support high speed devices, all hell will break loose and you’ll get no sound or gaps, pops and horrible noises. You’re unlikely to get any situation in between.

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